Roller for printing



Aug. 17, 1943. A. B. GUTH 2,326,777

ROLLER FOR PRINTING Filed April 7, 1941 Patented Aug. 17, 1943 ROLLER FOR PRINTING Adalbert B. Guth, Oak Park, Ill., assignor to Ditto, Incorporated, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of West Virginia Application April 7, 1941, Serial No. 387,185

(Cl. 1l-31.6)

6 Claims.

My invention relates to printing and particularly to rollers, sheets and blocks used in the printing industry for spreading and delivering the ink to the printing plate from which copies are taken. Printing is used in the broad sense herein and includes duplicating and other branches of printing to which the invention is applicable. The shape of the ink spreading body may be varied to suit the particular work. For example, it may be in sheet form of any thickness, oval, square, octagonal or round.

The ink as referred to herein comprises a dyestui as contrasted to a pigment ink. It is the purpose of my invention to provide an ink spreading body which is composed of a bodyforning material mixed with dyestuif and formed or molded into shape, the combination being such that the body will imbibe liquid in suflicient quantity to mix with the dyestuif and upon being brought into contact with the printing plate will give off the liquid and dyestu/i in sufficient quantity to ink the printing plate. The body thus comprises a source of ink and a spreader of the ink for application to the printing plate. I have found that by proper procedure it is possible to incorporate in the body a dyestuif in such form that the body is capable of taking in and giving up the liquid necessary to act as a vehicle in transferring the dyestuif from the body to the printing plate and from the printing plate to the copy sheet.

1t is to be understood of course that the body may be formed upon a suitable core or with suitable attachments for mounting the same in a printing press. The body also is sufficiently hard that in manufacture it may be placed in a machine and cut down to accurate shape.

Within the scope of my invention the particular dyestuif may be soluble in water, alcohol or other liquid which the body is capable of imbibing and giving up.

The invention as embodied in a conventional printing roller is shown in the accompanying drawing wherein- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a printing roller made according to my invention; and

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

In the drawing, the numeral I indicates the roller proper and the numeral 2 refers to the roller core or shaft. As will be evident from Fig. 2, the roller is made up of a main dye-concontaining body 3 which is covered with a collagen coating 4 that is liquid pervious.

In order that the invention may oe more fully understood I will now describe in general the method employed in making a dye-containing roller. The other shapes will be made in similar fashion. As a body material for the roller I prefer to employ a suitable colloid; for example, a keratin mass. In order to combine dyestui with the keratin which is ultimately to become the roller I bring the two into a relatively viscous state of substantially the same consistency and then proceed to mix them thoroughly until the dyestui is intimately distributed throughout the entire body of the keratin. Having combined the two substances I next mold them into roller form in suitable molds, using a core, if desired, and then allow the mass to harden and dry for a period of time whereupon the roller is ready for placing in its nal form. It may be ground down in a lathe to true cylindrical shape and is then coated with a suitable surfacing material that is adapted to control the passage of liquid into and from the dye-containing body. The dye-containing roller constructed as above has the characteristics of iinbibing and giving off liquid. For example, it is only necessary to bring it into contact with a moistened printing plate in order to cause the dyestui in the roller to be transferred onto the printing plate from which it can be passed to the copy sheet. The presence of sufficient moisture in the air makes it unnecessary to apply moisture directly to the plate. Since the roller contains a large amount of dyestuff scattered evenly throughout the body thereof, it is capable of giving up dyestuff in quantities suicient to make thousands of copies.

I will now describe a speciric example of manuacture. I take a quantity of keratin colloid and prepare a similar quantity of an aniline o'yestuli, so that the dyestuif and colloid are of tlie same consistency, and mix the two together thoroughiy and evenly. I bring the temperature of this mass to about F. and at this point, I pour the mass into a mold. For rollers l' use a tubular mold made of Lucite. Otner materials may be used for the molds.

The mass sets in a short time after which it4 which the coating is so treated as to make it liquid pervious. The roller is then boxed.

When it is desired to use the roller it is moistened with the liquid, for example, water, that is to act as the carrier for the dyestu. The collagen coating expands in thickness and since it is coated directly on the keratin-dyestuf base the diameter of the roller is increased. Any tendency of the collagen to expand inwardly causes pressure on the keratin-dyestuff mass.

This roller suitably moistened is pressed upon a suitable printing plate gives off its dyestuff through the expanded collagen coating.

While I have described certain materials which may be used as body colloids for the roller, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to such specic materials. For example, vegetable gels may also be used either singly or in combination.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An inking roller for printing having a surface layer through which Water may pass to the body of the roller and which expands when moistened to increase the diameter of the roller, said roller containing a dyestui which becomes available at the roller surface upon moistening of the surface layer.

2. An inking body for printing comprising a base containing coloring matter and a coating comprising collagen pervious to a solvent for said coloring matter.

3. An inking body for printing comprising in combination a body made from a keratin mass and a Water soluble dyestuff, and a moisture pervious coating over said body, said moisture pervious coating having the property of increasing in thickness when moistened.

4. An inking body for printing comprising in combination a body made from a keratin mass and a water soluble dyestuif, and a moisture pervious coating over said body, said coating comprising collagen.

5. An inking body comprising a colloidal mass and dyestui intimately mixed together, said body comprising two layers, one of which is on the exterior of the other and composed of a colloid capable of passing moisture through it to the inner layer.

6. An inking body comprising a colloidal mass and dyestuf intimately mixed together, said body comprising two layers, one of which is on the exterior of the other and composed of a colloid capable of passing moisture through it to the inner layer, said last named colloid comprising collagen.

ADALBERT B. GUTH. 

